Pickup Truck
by Elikubi64
Summary: When Daryl left town for good, he thought he was doing the right thing by stepping out of the way of Beth's dreams. What he never thought was how somehow, that stupid decision would mean she would end up living a broken life in a trailer park with Shane Ward. *COMPLETE* Long one-shot with scenes of violence and domestic violence.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N**

 **Hi everyone,**

 **I decided not to post this until it was finished as I learnt on my last story I'm a starter, not a finisher!**

 **Random fact - this entire story was inspired by the song Kings of Leon - Pickup Truck. Literally couldn't get the idea for this out of my head when I listened to it! So if you know it, you'll notice I've actually stolen lines from the song where they worked!**

 **Thanks**

 **Eli**

"Walk ya home?" It came out of his mouth before he could stop it and he had to resist the urge to wince as he said it.

"Sure, why not?" She flashed him her thousand watt smile that made his chest ache. He had missed that smile so goddamn much.

Daryl suddenly couldn't quite believe that he was there, turning down the dusty street lined with the exact same shops that were there when he left the town five years ago.

When he left, his intention was that he was never coming back. He had done what he did best when things start fucking with his head and that's running.

He had been a family friend of the Greenes for as long as he could remember, from being a little kid sneaking round for food when his parents had none to becoming Herschel's right hand man on the farm, stepping into Shawn's shoes when he went to fight for his country and never came back.

From the day they met as kids him and Beth, the youngest Greene daughter, had become best friends. At the time he had never dreamed of admitting that to anyone, including her, but she was. There was nothing they wouldn't do together and nothing they hid from each other; she tended to his back when his daddy would beat him and he would teach her how to track and camp in the woods.

But then at aged 24, he knew he had to run.

Beth had dreams. Big dreams that would get her out of their small town, taking her soothing country songs out to big cities. With her blinding beauty and Southern charm, he knew without a doubt that she would make it. So when she told him the reason why she wasn't going to do it, he knew he had to run.

Beth Greene, the girl he had already at that point realised he'd always been in love with, probably from the day they met, told him while they tended to her horse in the barn one day that she was in love with him. And not only that, she loved him so much that her dream, above all other dreams, was to settle down with him. And in case he didn't get it, she made clear she was expecting marriage, babies and a home. She had stared at him steadily, so damn unafraid, and then stepped right up to him and kissed him like it was something they had been doing every day. He fisted his hand in her hair, grabbed her hip and pulled her close and kissed her like she was the air he needed to breathe.

As his body hummed and her breath moaned, his head suddenly cleared and he understood what she meant.

He released her like she burned him, stuttered backward before standing stock still staring at her intensely, staring right into her future. He saw his basic run down cabin, her tired, tending to a screaming baby, worrying about paying the bills while he left her alone, gone to work trying to make ends meet. There wasn't the Beth he pictured on magazine covers, polished and confident, laughing with the person interviewing her on television, living her life in a swanky upstate apartment, happy that her dreams became her reality.

And he knew then he couldn't do that to her. He couldn't take away those dreams. Those dreams they had spoken about so much they had become her destiny.

So he left. Got in his truck and headed West, with no plan or destination other than getting himself as far out of the way of Beth's dreams as he could.

In the five years he was away, he watched every music channel, read every event magazine, scoured concert listings and learnt the frequency of every radio station hoping to finally hear about the nations darling, Beth Greene. But he found nothing.

He fretted for months that maybe something had happened to her, but let his mind tell him other stories, like that she had made it big in other countries and right now, was touring Europe, or that she was living her dream but in the background, as a producer or songwriter. Either way, she was still out there, making it big, free from the heavy anchor Daryl would have been for her.

Over the five years, there were so many times he thought about just going back, telling her he was sorry, that he loved her and that he wanted her dream of the two of them together more than he wanted anything else in the world. But in that time, in the end he went back just once. Only then did he learn what had really happened.

It was about two and a half years after he left and it happened by chance really. He was eating his dinner at the diner next door to the car repair garage where he worked, alone as always, scanning the newspaper.

Flicking through the pages he spotted the face of Herschel Greene.

A grainy black and white picture of Herschel's warm eyes and kind smile sat in the middle of the page, next to Herschel's name and under the title of the section, 'Funeral Announcements'.

His heart had seized up tightly in his chest and the paper crunched under his grip as his eyes scanned the text back and forth without fully taken it in. His eyes blurred over the words "Beloved Father" and he had chucked bills angrily on the counter before walking out, leaving behind his half finished dinner and a crumpled newspaper.

The next day he had bought the same paper and that's when he decided he was going back. With Annette already gone when Beth was just thirteen and Maggie no doubt still with her preppy little boyfriend, Daryl had chewed the inside of his mouth thinking of Beth out there all alone.

When he finally returned to his home town later that week he hadn't bothered with any trips down memory lane, instead driving straight to the funeral, arriving in the car park by the gloomy and grey churchyard with the mourners and minister already around the grave.

He had hung back at first, smoking a cigarette, while trying to decide whether he was right to even be there, when he saw her. She had her back to him, her blonder hair tied up into a loose bun with a thin back jacket that seemed to hang off her frame. Her head was bent and he noticed immediately that she was trembling. He knew her. He could see in his mind her face, sad but resolute, trying her best to hold back the tears even though they were already streaming silently down her face.

If he had any doubts whether he was right to be there they were gone in that instant and he pushed himself off his truck, walking up the hill ready to be there for Beth when she needed him.

When he was no more than ten meters away, he stopped in his tracks. Now with a better view of who she was standing with, a figure leaned closer to her, suddenly more close than any of the others seemed to be. Stepping closer still, the figure leaned into her and put a comforting arm around her. While Daryl was squinting trying to recognise who it was, Beth had turned to look up at the man, giving him a weak smile before he leaned down and kissed her gently on the lips.

The turn of the stranger's head to plant that kiss left Daryl with no doubt who the man was. Feeling his stomach drop and like he had forgotten how to breathe, Daryl turned on his heel and got back in his truck as fast as he could. Foot back on the gas, he'd driven straight home having spent no more than ten minutes in the town he had lived in his entire life.

He knew what he had read in the funeral announcement and accompanying obituary and he knew what it meant. Herschel hadn't just passed on, he'd been sick for nearly two and half years. The obituary made it clear he had round the clock care from his doting daughters who had also done everything in their power to keep the farm going too.

He could read between the lines. He knew what that meant for Beth's dreams.

What he never thought was how somehow, all of that would mean she would end up in the arms of Deputy Shane Ward.


	2. Chapter 2

Two and half years later, five years after he left, here he was, walking Beth Greene, the only girl he'd ever loved more than his own life, down the streets from his past to her home.

He was back here not out of choice, but to process some paperwork for his own daddy's death, who he was happy to learn had finally kicked it just the week before. Walking out of the town hall with the paperwork, thinking about how the air was heavy with looming rain, he had walked right into Beth Greene.

He hadn't been able to help the look of surprise on his face, before a stab of hurt and pain bubbled up into his features which he had quickly closed down and schooled into a neutral expression.

After what felt like an endless amount of time where both of them just stared at each other in silence, Beth - always so fucking brave - finally spoke.

"Hey." She said breathlessly, looking up at him with her eyes impossibly wide as she took him in.

Just hearing her voice, after five years of picturing it in his head, made his mind reel. His eyes scanned her face, noticing a tiredness in her that wasn't there before. More make-up than he remembered the old Beth wearing but God, she was so beautiful.

"Hey yourself." He answered voice gravelly, watching the corner of her mouth quirk up slightly and feeling his own quirk in response.

Her features suddenly shifted, her mouth dropping to a frown and her forehead creasing in concern. "I'm sorry about your Dad." She said quietly, her eyes holding steady on his face, grounding him.

"Ain't nothing sorry 'bout that." He looked away, shifting slightly, before glancing at her again, his eyes uncomfortable staying on her face too long. "But I - ah - 'm sorry about yours."

Her face fell immediately, her eyes dropping to the floor and her shoulders turning in slightly.

"Thank you." She said shakily, before looking up at him. He waited for her to say more because despite the five year gap, he could read her and knew she wanted to.

He started to feel uncomfortable under her scrutiny as she seemed to search his face before she finally spoke again. "Thank you for being there." He couldn't help his eyes widen just ever so slightly before she continued. "I - umm - I saw your truck pullin' away." She suddenly looked uncomfortable before looking back at him levelly. "Least I think it was you. I - Daddy would have been so happy you were there."

He felt like he'd been punched in the stomach and his face immediately flamed. He tried to keep his face impassive while his mind frantically searched for a reason or excuse he could give for leaving. And then his mind started thinking about the first time he left and, after five years, he didn't know if he could give a good enough reason for that either.

Instead, his mind grabbed on to a handful of words that he couldn't stop coming out of his mouth before it was too late.

"Walk ya home?"


	3. Chapter 3

There was something up.

With a swirling storm above them threatening to break, he could feel it in his bones that something was up the moment she agreed for him to walk with her. It was like the moment she turned down the street her smile slipped.

He suddenly felt stupid and uncomfortable, remembering how he left her five years ago. No wonder she was closing up. She probably wanted to get as far away from him as possible.

As they walked on from the Main Street and the first drops of rain began to fall, his mind kept grasping around for something to say. He had asked her to walk with him after all, he couldn't just now do it in silence.

While his brain tried out all kinds of stupid small talk his feet worked on auto-pilot, turning left off the street onto the start of the long country road that would take them in the direction of the farm.

He almost jumped in surprise when her small, cool fingers gently wrapped around his forearm. He looked sideways down at her out of the slits of his eyes and immediately took in the sadness in her expression. Her hair, loosely tied up, was starting to stick to her face as the rain drops continued to fall more steadily.

"Daryl I don't live there anymore." She hesitated. "The farm. It's gone." She said quietly, looking down at the ground as her cheeks pinked in shame. "Maggie and I - we tried but couldn't keep it going." She shook her head sharply. "We didn't know they were going to bulldoze it. We never would of … well at the time I guess it was the only option. It's housing now. Lots and lots'a houses." She couldn't look at him as she finished, releasing his arm and turning to continue down the street in the direction they were originally heading.

Daryl was still, his eyes following her as she walked through the puddles starting to form on the pavement, still trying to process what she had said. The farm was gone. The place he grew up in more than his own home. The house that had become his sanctuary when he was running away from his demons. Just gone.

He suddenly felt his blood rush with rage. Why hadn't people helped? Everyone in the community loved the Greene's. Where the hell were they when she needed them? He blew out a long breath knowing what he really wanted to ask himself. Where the hell was he when she needed him?

Everything he did, he thought he did for her. Now his thoughts were consuming him, shouting at him that it seemed the moment he left, her whole life went to hell.

That thought stopped him short and pulled him out of his own self pity as he looked up at her again. No matter how mad or upset he felt about the loss of the farm, there's no doubt she would be feeling a hundred times worse.

He quickened his step to catch up with her before slowing again at her side. Without thinking too much on it, he shrugged off his jacket and put it around her shoulders, noticing how the rain was starting to really fall now.

"'M sorry Beth." He said softly, watching her out of the corner of his eye while she walked, grasping onto the collar of his jacket round her while staring at the ground in front of her. His fingers twitched to reach for her but he stopped himself.

She snorted softly. "Nothin' to be sorry about Daryl. Was stupid to think we could'a kept it goin' without him."

He hated the resignation in her tone. This was Beth Greene. Hell, she could do anything. Wasn't stupid for her to think they could take on the Greene farm. But they were alone. Two grieving daughters alone.

"Should'a been here. Should'a done somethin'." He muttered quietly, shaking his head and looking away from her.

She peered up at him sideways with a soft smile. "You're an impressive man Mr Dixon. But not that impressive. Even you would'a quivered at the big bad debt collectors." She tried for a teasing tone but he saw her smile falter, her eyes growing distant.

Daryl wanted to know more. He wanted to torture himself with all the minor details of the hell he left her in. But he knew he'd be torturing her too. He needed something else. Something that wouldn't make this entire walk some painful trip down memory lane for her.

"So Maggie still with that Chinese kid?" He asked, looking sideways at her, trying to ignore the rain falling in his eyes so he could see her smile.

"Daryl he's Korean!" She laughed, elbowing him playfully.

"Whatever girl." He answered, keeping his eyes on her hoping he could keep that smile he had missed so fucking much on her face.

"Yes Maggie's still with Glenn." She smiled. "They're doing great. Glenn's a big hot shot businessman now." She smiled wistfully before he noticed it slowly slide off her face. "They live in San Francisco now though. Was the right thing for them completely." She nodded as if convincing herself. "And it was unfair on them that they couldn't have left earlier than they did because of Daddy. Glenn's work wanted him over there sooner so it was so good of them to wait." She finished quietly.

He didn't want to ask it but he could already see the answer in her face. He didn't want to torture himself any more as he pictured her all alone, with no family left but he couldn't help it. "You see 'em much?"

Her face fell even more. "Not that much anymore. Maggie and me - we had a fight. Somethin' she wants me to do. She doesn't understand though. I can't - I can't do what she wants. Now we - now we don't talk no more." She finished almost in a whisper, her eyes filling with tears.

He walked beside her, listening quietly, ignoring the soft thrum of the rain on the pavement and nodded. He wasn't going to ask her anymore. All he had done is tortured her since she bumped into him. And he was torturing himself too. She had nobody. He had walked right out of her life and left her with a broken family. Beth was a girl who always put family first and valued them above everything. Now she had no one. He thought about all the times she'd been there for him when his world was falling apart around him and he hadn't even shown his face in what have been her most difficult five years.

"M sorry Beth." He said quietly, not sure which of all his mistakes he was apologising for.

She looked up at him and he couldn't bring himself to hide the shame and sadness he was feeling.

"It's a sister thing Daryl. I'd be more worried if it was something you could fix." She smiled softly, looking at him.

He nodded gently, not taking her words in as his mind kept replaying the many ways he had failed her.

While trapped in his own thoughts the hunter in him recognised the change in his tread, with soft silent pavement replaced with the crunch of wet gravel.

Looking up he realised he knew this place. He was staring at the entrance to Oak Tree Park, one of two trailer parks in the area. The other, Pine Grove, his home for the first 14 years of his life, was one he would never, ever set foot in again.

His eyes narrowed slightly as he tried to picture Beth living somewhere like this. He didn't mean to but Beth most have noticed.

"I - I know it's not much. But when Shane lost his job - well things have been tough. Home is what you make it though." She tried to sound strong but she wouldn't even look at him as he just started into the park. "I'm - I'm fine from here Daryl, you don't have to walk me to my door."

He felt his whole body tense as soon as she said Shane. Since he bumped into her, he had been trying not to ask her about that. He didn't want to know whether they were still together. How his Beth, because whatever had happened that's how he has thought of her, would end up with some asshole like Shane. And not only that stick with him. Be living with him and no doubt planning to live out that dream she had with Daryl, but with Shane instead.

The rain was falling heavily now and she looked uncertainly up at him, pulling his jacket more tightly around her.

"Nah, said I'll walk ya home, will walk ya home." The last thing he wanted to do was make her feel uncomfortable but he needed to do this. He needed to see where she was living now and something about how closed off she was being made it all the more important to him.

She stared at him for a beat longer before checking her watch, then nodding slowly and turning back towards the park.


	4. Chapter 4

He walked next to her, feeling uncomfortable and anxious about Beth feeling ashamed in front of him. After everything she knew and had seen in his life, there would be nothing about Beth's life that she should ever feel ashamed about. She was still Beth. Doesn't matter where or how she lived, she was kind and good Beth.

When they came up to the tenth trailer she started to slow and walk towards it. He felt himself scanning it and taking it all in, trying to picture Beth living here.

It was run down. One of the windows was partly broken, but just had some tape over it. The screen door was not quite shut, hanging off the hinges at an odd angle. And the rail by the steps was partly missing on one side. All things he would have fixed in a day to try make it nicer for someone like Beth living there.

But he noticed what he could only guess were her little touches too. There were plant pots out the front, well tended to with beautiful yellow flowers in full bloom. The curtains that he could see inside were a soft and bright fabric and the windows - where they were intact - were spotless.

He felt his jaw clench involuntarily. How could someone - how could Shane - live here with Beth and not care about making sure it was right for her?

He noticed Beth was getting well and truly soaked while standing watching him take it all in. She looked at him uncertain, with her eyes not quite meeting his.

"S'nice place." He said, unsure what else he could possibly say after having been caught practically inspecting it.

She snorted and he felt relieved her uncomfortable expression was replaced with a smile.

"Yeah, let's just get you an umbrella to walk back with." She smiled, walking up the steps with him following cautiously behind her.

When he got inside the trailer, stepping directly into the small lounge area, he felt like he taking up too much space.

As he looked around he felt more confident that they had got the right place and Beth did indeed live here. Everything was immaculate, the small kitchenette was clean and tidy. The bedroom he could see towards the back had it's door open and the bed looked neatly made with a comforter smoothed over the top of it and a little vanity area against the far wall. He felt his jaw clench as his mind processed that he was looking at the bed Beth shared with Shane.

Beth seemed to be fluttering nervously around him as he stood in the middle of their small lounge, taking his jacket off and silently passing it to him before squeezing the rain out of her ponytail all the while not looking at him.

He noticed her checking her watch again. "Let me just grab you an umbrella, then I guess you probably should get on your way." She seemed flustered, not looking at him as she walked towards the bedroom.

He felt his eyes narrow. Something in the back of his mind was twinging, telling him something was awry but he couldn't quite work out what it was.

As he got sucked into his own thoughts, he hadn't realised his eyes had been following her as she had walked into the bedroom. He still wasn't fully aware he was even watching her as she froze in front of the mirror that was on the vanity desk along the back wall.

From where he was standing, he was staring through her bedroom door, directly at her reflection in the mirror which she was stood in front of.

By now however, his mind was coming back into the present and was starting to realise exactly what he was seeing.

Beth, not realising that he was watching her, was staring at her face in the mirror, her head turned slightly to the side and her fingers raised, gently touching the side of her face.

The side of her face that before, with a layer of make-up, had looked as smooth and unblemished as he had always remembered. But now, with her face still shining wet from the rain, he noticed something he hadn't before.

A dark shading around her eye, slight puffiness on her cheek and a thin slither of what he could tell was a scar down by her lip.

He was frozen to the spot. His eyes unmoving and his breath suddenly seized.

He knew what every single one of those blemishes meant. He had seen them all before on his Ma.

And now here he was, years later, watching Beth Greene, the girl he loved, gingerly pressing on her bruises. Beth Greene who was strong and smart and had dreams and was going to make it big, reduced to an old cliche.

He stood there staring still, his face frozen, hearing only the sound of his blood rushing through his veins as his mind roared with what he was seeing.

All of sudden, Beth finally noticed him, her attention moving from her reflection in the mirror to his, her eyes connecting with his in the glass. He heard her gasp and he could do nothing but stare back at her, his face unable to speak.

His skin began to prickle with the heat of his blood and his breathing, now finally returned, became shorter. Both his fists and his jaw clenched tightly, his teeth almost baring in a snarl, all the while his eyes still on her.

"Daryl - I -" Before Beth could even finish whatever excuse she was going to give him, just like he had heard his Ma give people time and time again, his hunters ears picked up the distant sound of a vehicle turning down gravel.

Beth seemed to hear it a second later and her reaction, eyes widening in horror, flicking down to her watch and back up again, confirmed to him not only who was the owner of that truck, but that it was the same owner of those cuts and bruises on her face.

Her face was a picture of horror, with her mouth opening and closing as she stared at him in the mirror, but she blurred in his vision as he felt a growl rip through his throat.

"Daryl!" She spun around, facing him now from the doorway of her bedroom. "Daryl - wait -"

He turned curtly on his heel, letting the full rage pump through his body now, his fists clenched and his vision red as he threw the trailer door open momentarily satisfied with the bang it made as it hit the outside wall.

He was running down the steps just as Shane's truck was turning in to park in front of the trailer. He could vaguely hear Beth's shouts behind him but all his senses were focussed on the beat up old pick-up truck pulling up in front of him.

He saw Shane's eyes connect with his and his smirk as he cut the engine and started opening the truck door.

"Well Dixon, if I was a less confident man, I'd wonder why -" Before he had a chance to finish and just as he stepped out of the truck Daryl threw a punch that landed squarely in Shane's jaw, his whole body slamming against the truck as his head whipped back.

Daryl wanted to tell him what a piece of shit he was, how he didn't deserve Beth and how he was going to pay for how he had hurt her, but as Shane cradled his face and Daryl stepped back ready to throw another punch, he spat the first thing that came out of his mouth.

"You call that a pick-up truck?!" He swung another punch and this time Shane was ready for him, lunging forward and dragging him down to the wet brown puddles on the floor.

He could vaguely hear Beth screaming in the background as he fell onto his back under Shane, a fist full of Shane's shirt before feeling a fist connect with his mouth. He could taste the iron as his mouth filled with blood but he slammed his head forward, hearing the satisfying crack as his head connected with Shane's nose.

"Fuck" he heard Shane grunt, before Daryl rolled them over, spitting out what must have been one of his teeth as he did, before throwing another clumsy punch that glanced off Shane's cheek. He had him now and threw another one, letting every bit of rage and sorrow for Beth go into it, hearing the satisfying crunch of Shane's nose. As he was pulling back to throw another one, now straddling Shane who groaned underneath him, he felt someone grasping onto his bicep. He turned blindly to whoever was trying to stop him and growled angrily, before he realised he was staring at Beth's tear streaked face.

"Daryl - please." She sobbed, her fingers digging into his arm as he stared at her, still straddling Shane as he writhed around beneath him.

He suddenly felt his rage deflate as her eyes pleaded with him. He looked at the full sorrow and shame in every one of her features and he just hated it. He hated more than anything else in the world that this was where they were right now. She wasn't on music videos, with big record deals, she wasn't on her farm with her family and she definitely wasn't living with him in his old cabin, him treating her like she was the most important person on earth.

Instead they were here, her living in a beat up trailer, with a fucking asshole who likes to beat his woman and him, soaked in mud with his eye swelling up and a piece of his bloody tooth on the ground between them. He was overwhelmed by the feeling that he made one stupid decision that had destroyed her entire life. He did it because he wanted so much more for her. Not this. _Jesus fucking Christ_ , not this.

"Daryl, please - please, just go." She said shakily, tears streaming down her face.

He stared at her, wanting to beg her not to stay with Shane, not to do this, not to become his Ma, plead with her that anything is better than this. But instead he just nodded, stepping back from her. Staring into her eyes once more, he nodded again before he turned to walk away.

Just before he did, he stopped and turned to her for the last time, trying to find the words he wanted to say. Maybe apologise for the last five years, tell her how sorry he was for leaving that day in the barn, how he wanted her dream too, how he wanted to be with her more than he's ever wanted anything in his life.

Instead he just said: "Just want you to know I was thinking of you."

He looked at her, chewing the inside of his mouth, before finally turning to walk away.


	5. Chapter 5

"Daryl." He was just a few steps away from the trailer when he heard his name.

Turning back, he saw Beth looking at him uncertainly as Shane struggled to pull himself to his feet behind her.

"Daryl wait." She walked up to him cautiously, fear and sorrow plain on her face.

A small hand reached up and gently touched his arm.

"You left." She said, her voice quivering and tears streaming freely down her face.

He looked at the ground ashamed. Now was his chance to explain his stupid decision, say sorry for it, beg for forgiveness, tell her how much he loved her.

"Didn't wanna ruin your dreams. Regretted it every damn day." Was all he could get out, looking sideways at her face, too afraid to look at her face on.

"But not this Beth. This - " There were so many things he meant that he didn't even know where to start. That this wasn't the life he meant to leave her with. This is what he should have protected her from. This is his Ma's life and she knew that. And she knew what happened to his Ma in the end. That this is when she needs to leave, let him take her away from this and look after her for the rest of her life. Love her like she deserved to be loved.

So drawn in to studying the sorrow in her features and trying to get out what he was feeling in words, he was oblivious to Shane's punch coming until it hit him square in the face. It was a punch filled with venom and rage and he fell backwards onto the floor with his ears ringing.

As he tried to pull himself up he saw Shane backhand Beth across the face with such ferocity that her whole upper body swung to the side.

His whole mind reeled at the sound of the slap and he knew at that moment that he wouldn't be leaving the trailer park until he had made sure that Shane was dead.

As he ignored his swimming vision and tried to pull himself up a new voice, a voice he hadn't heard in five years, rung through the air.

"Stop." It commanded sharply and Daryl's unfocused eyes tried to take in where it was coming from.

Standing just a few meters away next to his patrol car, with his gun pointing directly at Shane, was Sheriff Rick Grimes.

Shane sneered at him and it was only then that Daryl realised Shane's hand was wound in Beth's hair.

"Good to see you _Partner_." Shane answered with a smirk.

"You let go of Beth now Shane or so help me God I will put this bullet straight between your eyes." Rick's voice was steady. His eyes were level and focussed directly on Shane and nobody else.

"Now given my getting too trigger happy was one of the reasons you took my badge off me, I know you ain't just gonna shoot a man unprovoked Officer Grimes." Shane's face held nothing but contempt for his ex-partner as he stared him down.

Rick's eyes stayed steady on his face, his gun held strong and firm. "But I got witnesses here who will testify that that ain't the truth Shane. You got a bullet in your head because you attacked me. Ain't that right Daryl?" It was the first time Rick, one of his oldest friends, acknowledged him as Daryl pulled himself to his feet and stood beside Beth. He still continued to stare at Shane, but had tilted his head slightly in Daryl's direction as he addressed him. Hearing his name in the voice of one of the few people in the world he trusted with his own life made a warmth spread through his chest. He knew this was probably the only other man he could trust with Beth's safety.

"You got that damn right." Daryl answered, venom in his voice as anger pumped through his veins.

"And what about you Ms Pelletier? Ya'll called this one in afterall." Rick called, again still not even looking anywhere but Shane, and Daryl for the first time noticed Carol, the lady who was the centre of town gossip when she left her abusive husband ten years ago, standing on the porch of the trailer next door.

"You had no choice but to shoot him Sheriff." Her eyes were hard as she stared Shane down and Daryl's mind transported him back to his regular trips to the store where she worked, stocking up on cigarettes and noticing her turning from a weak, afraid mouse to a hardened strong survivor.

Daryl spared a glance sideways at Beth who was looking on in horror, her head at an awkward angle as Shane still gripped her hair.

"Well then Shane. I think it's time you let her go." Rick said, gun still poised stepping closer in slow, steady steps.

Shane looked around, rage burning his eyes, before he finally released Beth with a forceful shove of her head. As he did so and as she yelped, Rick was as quick as a flash, grabbing Shane by the arm and pushing him chest first up against his truck. Within seconds, Rick had pulled both his arms behind his back and cuffed him forcefully.

"Fuck you man." Shane spat, struggling against the cuffs. "And fuck you Dixon. Whad'ya think's gonna happen you redneck asshole? She gonna now leave me for your pathetic ass?" He sneered before his expression seemed to harden. "And Beth. When I get back tonight Beth we'll have ourselves a little talk about this. Wanna hear all about what this old man tried to do to you in our home." Daryl felt his whole body bristle and it took everything in his power not to go over there and slam Shane's face against the truck. But he blew a long breath out focussing instead on Rick. He was somebody he could trust to make this asshole pay. But he sure as fucking hell, would not be leaving Beth here alone for when Shane got back.

After Rick pushed Shane into the car and slammed the door shut he turned to face Beth and Daryl.

"Beth." Rick started looking at her steadily. "Beth, this time we got witnesses. You can't protect him now." He paused, studying her carefully. "Even if you say nothing we got enough. But please Beth. This time. Please stand with us this time." He stopped again, his eyes pleading. "Press charges Beth."

Daryl felt like he'd been punched in the stomach. The words swirled in his mind, taking him back to his own trailer. Seeing the people in uniform, from where he was hiding in Merle's room, watching out of the crack in the door as his Ma held cool ice to her face shaking her head violently as they pleaded with her to stand against his Dad.

He was almost angry with Beth. This was Rick, somebody they had always trusted, begging her to want to help herself.

He looked sideways at her waiting for her to give a pathetic answer like his Ma, that he wouldn't do it again, it was a one off, it was family business anyway, don't need no meddling outsiders gettin' involved.

He saw her look uncertainly up at him. God she looked so damn small and weak. This wasn't her. This wasn't his Beth. But she seemed to be pleading with him for support. Her blue eyes urging him to give her an answer.

Before he really let his brain catch on to what he was doing, he reached down and took her hand in his, threading his fingers through hers while looking at her, trying to convey that whatever stupid mistakes he had made in the past, with this he was with her and would be for as long as she would have him.

She looked down at their hands threaded together and seemed to stare at them for a long minute.

Eventually, she spared Daryl's face one last glance as if searching for something, before she looked back up at Rick and nodded. She did it firmly, her chin raised high but he felt the frightened shake in her hands.

Rick seemed to let out a breath he had been holding and Daryl could see the emotion cross his face before he nodded back at Beth.

He turned to Daryl, taking him in for a moment. "Good to see you Daryl." He paused like there was more he wanted to say. "We - it's good to see you." He said firmly holding his gaze.

Daryl just nodded, before Rick got in his car and pulled away.

Carol, who Daryl only now noticed was still on her porch watching the whole exchange, was studying Beth.

Beth was looking back at her and he could feel her clinging to his hand as if her life depended on it.

"S'the right thing to do." She said softly. "Make him pay. He won't be able to hurt you again." She finished, before turning away and going back into her trailer.


	6. Chapter 6

One of Daryl's eyes had well and truly swollen up. He could see just a slither of light through it, using his good eye to take Beth in, nervously fluttering around the trailer as she gathered first aid equipment.

Daryl was sat on the sofa, cold from his damp clothes feeling useless and tired all rolled into one.

Beth sat herself down next to him and her smell was so familiar it pulled distant memories to the front of his mind, transporting him back to days on the farm.

"Don't think that's gonna need stitches," She said inspecting him. "But I'd be pretty worried about that big toothy smile of yours with one less tooth in it." She smiled softly at him while her eyes took in his face.

Just as she reached up to touch his swollen eye, her proximity meant he could properly take her in. He reached up and gently took hold of her wrist before moving it to side. Gently taking her chin in his other hand, he turned her head slightly to the side, getting a full-on look at the red blossoming across her cheek from where Shane had hit her.

Dropping his hand again he just stared at her intensely, so many things he wanted to ask her and say but he didn't even know where to begin.

"I know." She said simply. "I know what you must think." She shrugged, looking at the ground.

"He - he was a good man. You don't know what it was like with the troubles with the farm and - and with Daddy sick." She slumped in her seat, looking at the ground with tears in her eyes. "Shane did so much to help. Making sure Daddy was comfortable, that crop orders could be filled. Other people helped too - Rick was there a lot, but with Lori and the new baby I know he couldn't be there as much as he wanted." She looked up at him again but seemed unable to meet his eyes.

"At first, it felt right." He noticed her cheeks warm as she said it. "Then when we lost the farm, things started changing in him. I think he blamed me. And sometimes - I think maybe he imagined, with Daddy out of the picture, I - and also him - would then have the farm. But when he lost his job too he became someone else." She shook her head in resignation. Daryl could only stare, his whole head a swirl of anger, shame and regret.

"At first I think I stayed with him because I felt I owed him. When I was at my lowest point he was there for me - it was only right I was there for him." She let out a shaky breath. "Then at some point, it changed. And I was staying with him because I was afraid of what he'd do to me if I tried to leave."

His fists clenched in anger but his stare remained passive, yet intense.

"I'll fucking kill him." He said quietly, hating the image of Beth trapped with someone just because she knew they would hurt her.

"I know that you would've. Today, if Rick hadn't showed up." She looked at him evenly and he looked back, not denying it.

"And that - that's what made me brave. If you'd do something so awful for me, then maybe I am worth somethin'. And maybe I should fight." She reached up and her gentle fingers turned his face towards hers, so she was so close he could feel her breath on his.

"You make me strong Daryl." His whole heart felt like it was going to explode with how much he loved this girl. He hadn't properly seen her in five years and he hadn't stopped loving her for a single day. And here he was staring at her, wishing more than anything he didn't leave when he did.

As if reading his mind, she leaned forward slightly and before he knew what was happening, she pressed a gentle kiss against his lips. His mind felt like it had imploded as it transported him back to when she kissed him in the barn and he had felt like his whole body was on fire. The softness of her lips, her sweet taste, he felt himself sigh.

This time though, he didn't grab her. Didn't pull her into a tight embrace because he felt something else there too. A sadness and heaviness in her that made him feel this kiss wasn't the start of something, but the end of something.

She pulled away and looked at him with a sadness and resignation in her eyes.

"Today you made me feel strong. I am thankful for that. And I'll press charges like I know you want me to." There was no pride or hardness in her voice, just a heaviness. "But he'll come back. He always finds a way of coming back. And then he'll make me pay for everything that happened today."

He felt his blood run cold as she almost whispered the last part of the sentence, before his rage kicked in and he chewed against the side of his mouth to stop him grinding his teeth in anger. He wanted to tell her he would be here waiting and he would kill that mother fucking piece of shit if he even tries to come back. Instead, he let his body flood with Beth's calming presence next to him and something else flashed in his mind.

"Then don't be here then." He said and she looked up at him confused. "When he comes back. Don't be here. Come with me."

He tried to get his heart to calm its rapid beating as he realised the gravity of what he was asking of her. But as he said it, he also realised he was asking her to do something that he wanted more than anything else in the whole world. And had done for as long as he could remember.

"Come stay with me. For as long as you want." He said, his voice rough with embarrassment as he looked at the floor. "I'm out by Talladega Forest. Best huntin' 'round. Gotta cabin. It ain't much. But it's better than this." He tried for a playful tone and let a little smirk play onto his face as he tried to read the quirk of her lips. "There's a diner there that's a nice place. Could probably get you a job, if - if you wanted to work. Or you don't have to." He felt his face heating as he wasn't sure if he was saying the right thing.

She smiled softly back at him, a warmth in her eyes that he hadn't seen since he had bumped into her.

"Daryl, I couldn't. I couldn't just impose on your life like that. And you don't need some old fling with baggage issues dumping that all on you just because she's runnin' scared." She smiled teasingly but uncertainly at him.

"You ain't runnin' scared Beth. Just don't need that shit in your life. And besides, we'll tell Rick where we're going and can still take Shane down. That ain't runnin' scared. And _you ain't no old fling Beth_." He said the last part with such conviction, trying to convey so much more than what he said.

Daryl knew he wasn't a man of many words and definitely not someone who talked about their feelings. But he wanted her to know what this meant. He looked at her but had to look away, down at a spot in front of him as he got his words out.

"None of this Shane shit matters. This trailer, that you lost the farm, your Dad. If none of it would'a happened, I'd still want this. I'd still want you with me. Always have." He looked up at her again nervously as he finished quietly.

He waited uncomfortably as she studied him. She was so beautiful it almost hurt to look at her. He watched the change in her features, gradually softening as she took him him.

"Alright." She said simply with a soft smile on her face.

"Alright?" He asked in disbelief, partly that she had agreed and partly that that was all she had to say.

She let out a soft laugh. "Alright! Let's go!"

He looked at her like she was crazy and before he lost his nerve he reached up and cupped her head with his hand and pulled her in. When his lips touched hers he felt like an electrical current passed through his body. This time, there wasn't a sadness or a resignation like the last kiss, instead this one transported him back to the farm. The need and want and so many things unsaid.

He felt her push her lips against him, one of her hands reaching up to cup his cheek, the other running down his bicep. As she parted her lips and her tongue tentatively tested his, he groaned and thread his finger through her hair, his other hand on her hip trying to pull her closer. His whole body coursed with heat and he knew he needed to stop before he let this get out of control. As much as Beth's little sighs and breaths told him she was enjoying it as much as he was, he didn't want her to think he was taking advantage of her with everything that had just happened.

Pulling back he rested his forehead against hers, breathing heavy and staring into the eyes of the girl he hadn't stopped thinking about for the last five years.

"Alright." He smiled.


End file.
